Monday, April 9, 2007

Alcoholism is a very complex problem that is rampant in our society and has many variables that need to be addressed simultaneously.The success rate with mainstream treatment options is poor at best. The nutrition and diet components are rarely addressed and mostpeople are unaware of their extreme significance. It is not widely known that Bill Wilson, one of the founders of AA was aware of theimportance of vitamins and hypoglycemia in the treatment of alcoholism. Before his death he was trying to educate physicians aboutthese issues. (Null 95, Larson 92) After losing a son who had tried all the traditional approaches to alcoholism, Joan Larson researchedwith the passion of a mother on a mission and wrote a detailed comprehensive book that emphasizes the importance of addressing dietand nutrition in the treatment of alcoholism. In her treatment Center, The Health Recovery Center, they maintain a 75% success ratewith an approach that addresses issues such as making diet changes, eliminating sugar and refined foods, supplementing numerousvitamins, amino acids and minerals which are most often depleted in alcoholics, treating hypoglycemia and treating food allergies. Herbook provides very specific guidelines necessary to take beginning with detox and continuing through recovery. She discovered it isnecessary to make biochemical repairs in order to achieve success and prevent relapse. It is a "must have" book for anyone involved inthe treatment of alcoholism.

Randolph (80) contends that alcoholism is not a mental sickness, but rather it is a symptom of advanced food allergy. In his practice hehas found that it is not the alcohol that one is addicted to it is the food source of which the alcoholic beverage is made of. Alcoholicbeverages are made of food such as grains like barley, corn, cane or grapes. Alcoholics have a food allergy to these. In advanced foodallergy the individual craves the allergic food. Randolph proposes that the alcoholic is craving the beverage is made from not the alcoholitself. The alcohol serves as a catalyst to help the food be absorbed more quickly, because alcohol is absorbed rapidly throughout thegastrointestinal tract. This is why most alcoholics struggle to stay sober and relapse is so common. Because, when alcoholics put thealcohol down they are continuing to eat sugar, corn, etc., and when they eat these foods it triggers cravings. The food itself cannotprovide the quick fix that the alcohol can provide because of its rapid absorption.

Pfeiffer(80) has found that people with addictions have high levels of histamine which he states results in compulsive behavior. He hashad success using calcium, methioninine and a low protein high carbohydrate diet in treating not only compulsive behavior, but alsodepression.

There is considerable data that supports the notion that most alcoholics are hypoglycemic. (Larson 92, Airola 77) There is a reciprocalrelationship between the two. Chronic drinking just like excessive sugar contributes to the development of hypoglycemia just as peoplewith hypoglycemia are potential candidates for alcoholism. Hypoglycemia can cause irritability, depression, aggressiveness, insomnia,fatigue, restlessness, confusion, a desire to drink and nervousness, many of the same symptoms of an alcoholic. (Larson 92) When analcoholic gets sober the symptoms listed above continue to plaque them and if hypoglycemia is not addressed these symptoms leave theindividual at high risk of relapsing in order to temporarily relieve these symptoms.

In 1991 more than 60% of individuals admitted to traditional treatment programs had been in treatment before and more than half ofthose repeating were being admitted for the third time. About half of these were drinking again within one year. (Grinspoon 1996)Unfortunately this is a common scenario in treatment in general. Relapse is expected, common and usually the norm. Most people arenot successful in long -term recovery. In a four year study of 922 men only 28% refrained from drinking for six months aftertreatment. After one year 21% remained abstinent and after four years 7% remained abstinent. (Rand Repot 1990) It is only a smallsubgroup of people who are helped by 12 step programs and traditional treatment. Obviously traditional treatment is missing a very largepiece of the puzzle. Traditional treatment could be more successful if it implemented a holistic approach to addiction and address issuessuch as hypoglycemia, food allergy and nutritional deficiencies.

I know from personal experience that this is true. As a chronic alcoholic I entered traditional treatment and although some of it wasextremely helpful, it could not help with the intense depression, anxiety, confusion, irritability and nervousness that I continued to havethat was putting me at high risk of relapsing. After a year of pure misery and "white knuckling" it, which had left me hanging by a veryfine thread, I discovered a book that changed my life. After finding a doctor whowas knowledgeable in this area, I learned that I had numerous food allergies, chemical allergies, hypoglycemia and vitamin and mineraldeficiencies. It was when I addressed these issues that my life really changed. I discovered that my eliminating sugar and wheat fromthat I could eliminate my disabling anxiety and depression. By treating all my allergies and addressing my hypoglycemia and deficienciesand changing my diet I was able to turn my mental health completely around and I was no longer "white knuckling" it to stay sober. Ihave been sober for 13 years and don't attend any AA meetings.

Author: Cynthia PerkinsM.Ed., writer, educator, therapist/advisor/coach and Holistic Health ConsultantSpecializing in Life Management and Support for Living with Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain, and Disability as well as Sexuality and Sexual Intimacy.http://www.holistichelp.net/

1 comment:

THE SACRED BULLI imagine 12 STEPPERS have sold their souls to the devil. Fortunately, I was saved through the power of Jesus Christ, but for many years had been exposed to the evil “satanic cult” (Alcoholics Anonymous) Wilson (AA) has prostituted himself & deluded many thousands (12 Step Groups) by worshipping the god Moloch (Ba’al the Sacred Bull). It all started with his (Wilson) “drug induced hallucination”….Here are references to seances and other psychic events….Bill would…”get” these things …long sentences, word by word would come through….” (22), he asked for guidance….The words began tumbling out with astonishing speed….(23)So A.A.’s 12 Steps were actually received verbatim from the demonic world. It is not surprising, then, that the effect of A.A. upon many of its members is to lead them into occult involvement. In 1958, Wilson wrote to Sam Shoemaker,Throughout A.A., we find a large amount of psychic phenomena, nearly all of it spontaneous. Alcoholic after alcoholic tells me of such experiences… run nearly the full gamut of everything we see in the books. In addition to my original mystical experience, I’ve had a lot of such phenomenalism myself.(24)Wilson’s “original mystical experience” was his alleged “conversion” –a classic occult encounter: “Suddenly the room lit up with a great white light. I was caught up into an ecstasy…it burst upon me that I was a free man…a wonderful feeling of Presence, and I thought to myself, ‘So this is the God of the preachers! ‘ A great peace stole over me….”(25)This was not the “God of the preachers” but the one who transforms himself “into an angel of light” (2 Cor 1l:l4)-a light that often transforms those involved in the occult. The experience was so profound that Wilson never touched alcohol again. Satan would he more than willing to deliver a man from alcoholism in this life if thereby he could ensnare him for eternity and inspire him to lead millions to the same destruction!Wilson joined the Oxford Group and regularly attended its meetings at Calvary Church (NY), pastored by Episcopalian Sam Shoemaker. Shoemaker urged his hearers to “accept God however they might conceive of him….”(26) Here was the origin of Step 3’s “God as we understood him.” God does not respond to those who call upon false gods. Jesus said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (Jn 17:3). God’s judgment comes upon them “that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thes 1:8).I will set my face against that man & his family & will cut off from their people both him & all who follow him in prostituting themselves to MolechI will set my face against the person who turns to mediums & spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, & I will cut him off from his people. (Leviticus 20: 5, 6)Moloch the God Ba’al, the Sacred Bull, was widely worshipped in the ancient Near East and wherever Carthaginian culture extended. Baal Moloch was conceived under the form of a calf or an ox or depicted as a man with the head of a bull.Hadad, Baal or simply the King identified the god within his cult. The name Moloch is not the name he was known by among his worshippers, but a Hebrew Moloch (in the Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament), or Molech (Hebrew), is no different than the word Melech or king, transformed by interposing the vowels of bosheth or ’shameful thing’. translation. The written form.He is sometimes also called Milcom in the Old Testament.

I beg you Steppers to to get out while you can (12 Step) or end up as “Bull Headed”, Steppers!!